In
a report released on Tuesday by a non-governmental agency (NGO) that
monitors human rights, the United Nations is urging the United States
to cease its development and use of what the U.N. special rapporteur
termed "fully autonomous robotic
weapons."

"These
weapons, once activated, can select and engage targets without further
intervention by a human," according to the NGO, Human Rights Watch.

Beginning
on May
29 in Geneva, nations attending the United Nations Human Rights
Council will debate the challenges posed by fully autonomous weapons,
sometimes called “killer robots.”

“The
U.N.
report makes it abundantly clear that we need to put the brakes
on fully autonomous weapons, or civilians will pay the price in the
future,” said Steve Goose, arms director at Human Rights Watch.
“The US and every other country should endorse and carry out the
U.N. call to stop any plans for killer robots in their tracks.”

The
UN special rapporteur, Professor Christof Heyns, prepared
a 22-page report on robotic weapons to be disclosed at the second
session of the Human Rights Council on May 29. The U.N. council will
then consider how to act on the report’s recommendations, including
its call on nations "to institute an immediate moratorium on these
weapons and work for an international agreement that addresses the many
concerns identified in the report."

According
to Human Rights Watch, President Barack Obama and his Defense Department
have acknowledged the problems regarding use of fully autonomous weapons.
As a result, almost unnoticed, the U.S. Department of Defense issued
a directive on Nov. 21, 2012, which mandates that "a human being
to be in-the-loop” when decisions are made about using lethal
force.

For
about a decade, Directive
Number 3000.09 has allowed the Defense Department to develop or
use only fully autonomous systems that deliver non-lethal force, unless
department officials waive the policy at a high level. In effect, the
directive constitutes the world’s first moratorium on lethal fully
autonomous weapons, claims HRW.

"While
a positive step, the directive is not a comprehensive or permanent solution
to the potential problems posed by fully autonomous systems," Human
Rights Watch said. "The policy of self-restraint it embraces may
also be hard to sustain if other nations begin to deploy fully autonomous
weapons systems."

"Over
the past decade, the expanded use of unmanned armed vehicles or drones
has dramatically changed warfare, bringing new humanitarian and legal
challenges," Human Rights Watch officials said. The
UN report acknowledges that “robots with full lethal autonomy
have not yet been deployed” despite the lack of transparency on
their research and development."

These
future weapons, sometimes called “killer robots,” would
be able to choose and fire on targets without human intervention, according
to HRW.

In
a 50-page report released last year, “Losing
Humanity: The Case Against Killer Robots,” outlines concerns
about these fully autonomous weapons, which would inherently lack human
qualities that provide legal and non-legal checks on the killing of
civilians. In addition, the obstacles to holding anyone accountable
for harm caused by the weapons would weaken the law’s power to
deter future violations.

“Giving
machines the power to decide who lives and dies on the battlefield would
take technology too far,” said Steve
Goose, Arms Division director at Human Rights Watch. “Human
control of robotic warfare is essential to minimizing civilian deaths
and injuries.”

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However,
there are several organizations and officials who question the U.N.
Human Rights Council including scholars at Freedom House.

"One-third
of the candidates... on United Nations Human Rights Council... are unqualified
for the job," according to a Freedom
House policy paper. According to the Freedom House policy paper.

"Candidates
were evaluated based on their domestic human rights records, as measured
by their ranking in Freedom in the World, as well as their voting record
on human rights-related resolutions at the UN General Assembly (UNGA).
Freedom House does not recommend seven candidate countries—Cote
d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Gabon, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, the United Arab
Emirates, and Venezuela—for Council membership. The qualifications
of three other countries—Brazil, Kenya, and Sierra Leone—are
questionable."